Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up – Jan. 8, 2009

There’s half the blood in The Half Blooded Prince; The Mutant Chronicles finally sees the darkened theater; Mangold gets romantic with Juliet; Ender’s Game comes to the end of the road; nobody does it better than Quantum of Solace.

1. Harry Potter fans may be worried to discover that Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince has been given a PG rating by the MPAA. This rating is due to “scary images, some violence, language and mild sensuality.”

Considering that the Potter books get darker (and thicker) this comes as a bit of a surprise. Could the MPAA be getting softer or have large chunks of the novel been ignored?

You can find out when Harry Potter And The Half Blood Princeis released on July, 17 2009.

2. Fans of Thomas Jane rejoice! Mutant Chronicles finally has a distributor and a release date. Magnet Releasing have acquired the US distribution rights to the Sci-Fi film that co-stars John Malkovich and Ron Perlman. The film will open in selected cities on April 24th.

Source: Moviehole.net

3. James Mangold director of such broad reaching fare as 3,10 To Yuma, Walk The Line and Kate and Leopold will next be helming an adaptation of Anne Fortier’s Juliet. According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“The story, which takes a cue from Romeo and Juliet, toggles from medieval Siena to the present day in a story about a woman who discovers she may be descended from the people who inspired one of the most popular and tragic love stories of all time.”

So it’s kind of like Rumor Has It – with Shakespeare instead of The Graduate. Come to think of it, isn’t this Shakespeare in Love?

Well, if anyone can make it work it’s Mangold. The man(gold) is able to knock out decent movies in nearly every genre.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

4. The film adaptation of Ender’s Game has died in development. Wolfgang Petersen was in the line of fire to direct the film but he dropped out because he was unhappy with the direction the project was going. According to The LA Times the film was scrapped early in November.

5. Quantum of Solace has become the highest grossing James Bond film of all time at the US box office by grossing $167.1 million, beating Die Another Day to the title. The film has taken $550 million in total since it’s October release compared to $591 that Casino Royale grossed in its entire theatrical run. Solace is still on release and it hasn’t opened in Japan yet so that gross will only rise and we could see the film become the all time Bond box office champion.

These figures make Quantum of Solace the unadjusted champion – consider that Moonraker grossed $200 million back in 1978 or that Thunderball grossed a staggering $141 million in 1965. Imagine how much they’d be worth in 2009 ticket prices!